Trump meets with new Russian ambassador to U.S., Darchiev

Reuters and Kommersant reported the meeting.

Trump received the Russian ambassador’s credentials, after which Darchiev officially began his role as head of Russia’s diplomatic mission in the U.S.

According to Darchiev, he told the U.S. president that the embassy “will do everything to restore Russian-American relations and bring them back to normality and common sense.”

Darchiev also said that “Russia and the United States are destined, as great powers, to have non-confrontational peaceful existence.”

He added that now a window of opportunity has opened to fully restore bilateral ties and to seek joint solutions based on mutual respect and equality.

Such solutions, he said, are needed to address serious global problems and crisis situations, and the current crisis must be resolved based on the principle of multipolarity and with regard to new geopolitical realities.

Speaking to reporters, Darchiev said that while the event was not meant for a long conversation, “our discussion was very constructive.”

“We have at last moved from monologues under the previous administration and a general absence of discussion to quite a pragmatic conversation, a complicated conversation,” he added.

The ambassador did not discuss the outlook for future cooperation with the U.S. but said the positive signals from the presidents give hope for the future, and that between them, in addition to personal chemistry, there is also President Trump’s understanding that Russia and America should stand together.

Darchiev said that preliminary talks are underway in several areas, including restoring the work of diplomatic missions, consultations on resuming air travel, and the possibility of a meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents. However, he noted that these issues were not discussed during the ceremony.

Darchiev has served in diplomatic roles in the U.S. twice before and was Russia’s ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2021. In recent years, like many senior Russian diplomats, he has made sharp public statements against the U.S. and the West.

• On April 10, Russian and American delegations held talks in Istanbul, which included discussion on normalizing embassy operations.
• On June 10, Russian Ambassador Alexander Darchiev said the next round of talks between Russia and the U.S. would take place in Moscow soon.